Tag Archives: Rich

How does your garden grow?

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Here’s a few pictures and reports this week from our gardening mates around this island and globe of ours.

The first report is from Jesse Yuen in Perth, Australia who let us know that he planted a lemon tree this week (how good will that be, freshly picked lemons from the garden) and sent us some pictures of some flowering aloes (above) plus some nice cacti which are something that he is now really getting into. Love that large barrel cactus (is it called that?) in the tub, that’s a brilliant garden Jesse, ta for the pictures and we love cacti too!

Talking of cacti, the above is a photograph from Debby H in north London of her orchid cactus that has just sent out a flower bud for the first time in a few years.

She also sent us pictures of her dwarf sunflowers that are planted in food waste bins (great idea!) No flowers yet but look at size of those leaves. Cheers Debby.

Here’s a great pic of some gardening “work in progress” from Rich in the Lake District. He was in his garden, putting in these plants (that he started off indoors) into the rockery. What a view from a back garden. Cheers Rich.

Finally here are some wonderful rose pictures from Mike & Julia‘s garden near Coventry. Thanks for the great photographs from Julia as ever. As they said, “Attached are some pics of our roses, which have gone ballistic in the last couple of days!” Some nice colours there.

Thanks for everyone for sending in their pictures of their gardens in, we appreciate it and do keep sending them on as the season progresses.

A Lewisia not in Lewisham, but in the Lakes

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Thanks to Rich in the Lake District for sending us this great picture of a hanging basket he has there with a Lewisia in it. He said they had forgotten all about them, “these popped up while we weren’t watching.” We’ve never seen them before, but they look great! Possibly a plant to acquire here we reckon.

Please don’t tell us “summer” has ended

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We’ve heard today in true British Bank Holiday style, that the current lovely weather we’re having is coming to an abrupt end this weekend. Typical! But to cheer us up here’s a couple of great photographs.

The first (above) is Rich in the Lake District’s back garden. Doesn’t it look great! As he said, “The bluebells are really high now”. That’s one chilled out view there Rich, we bet it’s a nice calm place to relax in!

And above is Debby H‘s garden in north London, more specifically the cosmos bed. Debby told us “I can’t believe the number of flowers that we have already on our cosmos plants. They’re only small, about 30 cm high. We planted them out about 3 weeks ago and most of the flowers have come since then. In previous years we haven’t had these many flowers till late summer.”

“I planted the seeds in mid-February, whereas I have done it in March previously. I kept half indoors on a windowsill, and the other half were moved to our plastic greenhouse. It doesn’t seem to have made any difference to how they are growing.” It’s always good to experiment and see what happens. Thanks for the report Debby, we scattered our cosmos seed all over the garden this year and not sure if any have come up or those damned slugs have had them. We will keep you all posted.

And thanks to the great blog from Penny Golightly here’s news of some free herbs seeds here. Cheers Penny!

The day after Dave came

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Cheers to Rich in the Lake District for another lovely picture from his front garden (possibly a contender for our nicest view from a front garden award). He told us yesterday “It’s a fairly nice day today, wind has dropped and only a sprinkle of snow on the highest hills.”

During the storm they did have a power cut which lasted as long as it took them to find the candles and torches, light in comparison when during past storms they’ve had them for up to 5 days. Blimmin’ eck!

Good to hear Storm Dave didn’t kick off too much or create much trouble (as some Daves do when they get angry.)

Happy Birthday Rich and good luck to all gardeners if they’re doing some Bank Holiday gardening today.

Disclaimer: * We are not getting at any Dave in particular and have mentioned it for purely humorous purposes. We know a few by the way (Mad Dave, Tai Chi Dave and Dave across the road) and all are lovely Daves.

Northern beaches and birds

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Many thanks to Rich in the Lake District for sharing a couple of photos he took from his recent break in South West Scotland, where he visited Gatehouse of Fleet, Portpatrick, and the South Ayrshire coast. As he put it, “Spectacular, but cold.”

Above is a great picture of Ross Bay, while below is an ace shot of a red kite in flight, showing its distinctive long, deeply forked tail (we have just read about the tail so didn’t have a clue about it before). More information about the red kite here.

Weather report from the lakes

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It’s been damp and overcast down here in SE23 today so the gardening we were planning to do was confined to repotting some seedlings indoors. Thanks to Rich R in the Lake District for letting us know about the weather up there. “Still some snow on the hill tops this week. Biting winds but lovely sun and it’s light until nearly 6.30pm.” Great stuff Rich and ta for the picture, we can’t wait for spring.

A view from the lakes

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Cheers to Rich in the Lake District for sending this lovely snap today and don’t it look great up in the background? “A lovely day here, freezing and sunny.” It wasn’t bad here in London today either, bright and sunny. And no rain for a change.

Do you reckon sping is on its way? Or not very far away?

 

Things that appear in your front garden (a new series)

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A big cheers to Rich in the Lake District again, for sending this picture of what appeared in his front garden the other day. Wow, that is one mad “male Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), also frequently called a Ring-necked Pheasant.” as AI told us. Cheers Rich, anything else mad that turns up as mad please let us know.